


For Better and for Worse

by TheSprout



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Board Games, Confident Katsuki Yuuri, Doing taxes, Domestic Fluff, Don’t copy to another site, Drunk Katsuki Yuuri, Drunk Victor Nikiforov, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Smut, Furniture Shopping, Hangover, Hurt/Comfort, Locked Out, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Married Couple, Married Life, Muffins, Nightmares, Pillow Talk, Power Outage, Real Life, Sickfic, Slice of Life, Victor Nikiforov is Extra, Victor can't get it up, Yuuri's birthday, twisted ankle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-02 13:04:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 12,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17264738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSprout/pseuds/TheSprout
Summary: Victor and Yuuri cannot be winning medals around the world every day. Sometimes they stay at home and live a normal life, one new couch, one pillow talk, and one romantic night at a time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in desperate need for new content and I cannot wait for the movie announcement that will be made on the 18th of January.
> 
> While we wait I have a little collection of drabbles that I'll hopefully update daily until the announcement. A sort of Advent calendar if your religion was Yuri On Ice, if you will.
> 
> Victuuri, as domestic as it gets, as fluffy and cozy as you can take it.
> 
> Enjoy! <3
> 
> -The Sprout
> 
> 1 - Hungover Victor  
> 2 - Furniture shopping  
> 3 - Yuuri is a sore loser  
> 4 - Victor can't get it up  
> 5 - Yuuri is sick  
> 6 - Locked outside  
> 7 - Victor proposes -again  
> 8 - Power outage  
> 9 - Victor hoards skates  
> 10 - New mattress  
> 11 - Doing taxes  
> 12 - Yuuri has a nightmare  
> 13 - Drunk Yuuri  
> 14 - Yuuri's birthday  
> 15 - Yuuri eats all the muffins  
> 16 - Victor twists his ankle  
> 17 - Drunk Victor

“I think I'm dying,” Victor whines feebly. 

Yuuri cannot help but smile at his husband. Victor is sprawled across the bed on his stomach like a washed-up fish, his hair all over the place, one leg tangled in the sheet. He is only wearing his underwear, which is slightly pushed down and lets Yuuri get a glimpse of the round top of his butt. 

Victor has not moved an inch since he fell asleep the night before and has woken up around noon with painful moans and queasy shudders.

“You’ll survive,” Yuuri says as he walks up to the bed and sits beside Victor.

“I need to see a doctor.”

“I don’t think it’ll be necessary.”

“I thought you loved me.”

Yuuri gently brushes Victor’s bangs away from his face. “You're not sick, you're hungover. I love you but I’m not calling the doctor.”

Victor has a hoarse sigh. “It’s not just a hangover,” he argues weakly. “I know what it's like to be hungover, I got it once when I was fourteen.”

Yuuri tries to remember a time where Victor was hungover but his memory fails him. It suddenly strikes him that he has never really seen Victor hungover. Drunk, often, tired, from times to times, sick, it happened, but never hungover. His body seemed to magically process alcohol like a regular beverage and he was always good to go the next morning, no matter how drunk he was a few hours earlier.

Victor hides his face in his pillow and grumbles miserably. “I don't deserve this, why is it happening to me?”

“It’s what happens when someone drinks too much.”

“We drank together, why are you not dying? This is so unfair.”

“You drank about four times as much as I did.” 

“I don’t believe you.”

“Maybe you’ll believe your bank statement.”

Victor grunts in defeat. “I had a few drinks… So?” 

“So when people drink a lot they get hungover.” 

“But…” Victor whimpers with a pitiful wince. “I'm Russian…”

Yuuri chuckles. “I’m pretty sure your liver doesn’t know what nationality you are.”

“Trust me, it knows.”

“Ok, maybe you’re right,” Yuuri admits.

“Why does my head hurt so much… My hair hurts.”

“I know,” Yuuri says as he hands Victor two painkiller pills and a glass of water. Victor whines when he rolls on his back and tries to sit up. He takes the pills and washes them down with a shy sip of water.

“If it’s the alcohol how did I not get hungover before? I’m pretty sure I’ve drunk more before.” 

Yuuri shivers slightly at the idea of Victor drinking even more than what he has had the night before. How he made it alive is a true mystery. All night long Yuuri had watched his husband and been ready to take him to the hospital if he passed out, but to everyone’s awe, Victor had stayed on his feet and dragged himself to bed without help. He had fallen asleep within seconds, and his peaceful snoring had assured Yuuri that he was still alive.

Yuuri pinches his lips. Victor already looks so miserable that he doesn’t know if he should answer his question. He lets his fingers brush down Victor’s forearm and gently squeezes his hand.

“Maybe... you don't recover as easily as you used to?” he suggests softly.

Victor looks up and has the saddest pout. “Do you mean I'm really dying… of old age.”

“I’m glad you’re dying of old age and not of alcohol poisoning," Yuuri says as he bends to kiss him on the forehead. "Please don't drink like that again, you scared me.”

“I didn't drink that much, I wouldn’t have died…"

“You asked me to be your coach.”

Victor pauses. "Ok I could've died. I won't do it again.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 16 days to go!

“It's never going to fit…”

“I love when you say that.”

Yuuri rolls his eyes. “This will never fit in our living room.”

“Yes it will, I measured.”

“Oh?” Yuuri asks, genuinely surprised. “How much space is there between the two walls?”

“Five big steps and about that length,” Victor says as he opens his arms in front of him to show the distance between his two hands.

“Are you kidding me?”

 

The furniture store is packed and they could not have chosen a worse day to buy a new couch.

A week earlier Makkachin had decided to bury her toys in the left cushion of their sofa and they had come home to an explosion of fabric and stuffing in the middle of their living room. After a few days of trying to sit on the same spot, a quick research that told them that fixing the cushion would cost the price of a new couch, and another weekend of quiet denial, they had faced reality and planned a trip to the mall.

Now they are standing in the middle a fake Swedish apartment, surrounded by fourteen other couples who argue about a chair or a rug and try to pay for a coffee table in twenty installments.

 

“But this couch is perfect!” Victor insists. “Just sit on it and tell me you don’t love it.”

“I love it but it’s way too big for our place! It’s almost twice the size of the one we have now and we can already barely walk around it!”

“But there’s space for you, me, and Makka!”

“Yeah, and we can all chill in the courtyard of the building because it won’t fit in our living room.”

“But Yuuriiiiiiiiii…”

“Look, this one is nice,” Yuuri says as he walks to another sofa. “It’s just slightly smaller, we can still nap on it.”

“It’s boring.”

Yuuri grunts in frustration. “Alright, what about this one? You said you liked the color.”

“It’s too small, I can’t even extend my legs if I lie on it.”

“It’s for four people and we are only two!”

“Two and Makka!” Victor says, before turning around. “Oh look this one is gorgeous!”

Yuuri walks up to him and turns the tag of the couch to look at the price. He flinches and lets go the tag as if he had burned himself.

“You're not supposed to look at the price,” Victor mumbles. “You're ruining all the fun.”

“I'm not spending that much money for a couch that Makkachin could destroy tomorrow… Hey look, they have the same one but without the end part, it’ll fit just right.”

Victor pouts. “I don’t know, it doesn’t look the same.”

Yuuri sighs quietly. It’s been three hours, his feet hurt, he is hungry, and frankly, he doesn’t care that much about which couch they choose as long as he can watch TV comfortably.

Victor is still frowning and Yuuri understands that he needs to step up his game and be a little bit more convincing.

He pulls Victor by the front of his coat and pushes him against a bookshelf, where they are half hidden by a plastic ficus and a lamp called hovnäs.

“See the couch behind me? The blue one.”

Victor is slightly concerned, but he looks over Yuuri’s shoulder and nods.

Yuuri raises on his toes to whisper in Victor's ear. “Imagine me, naked.”

“What?”

“We are in our apartment, just you and me…”

Victor stiffens at the low purr of Yuuri’s voice. Yuuri’s breath is hot against his skin when he speaks again.

“I bend over this armrest… It's just the right height for you.”

Victor looks at the couch again -yes it would be perfect- but his eyes quickly come back to Yuuri. Yuuri’s cheeks are flushed and his lips pink and wet. His lashes flutter and Victor knows that it’s already too late.

“You're behind me, my head is in the cushion but you can still hear how I moan…”

Victor’s eyes get blurry and he can’t seem to remember how to breathe.

“I moan and push back against you. You hold my hips…”

Victor swallows but his mouth is dry.

“You tease me and I beg you to-”

Victor hastily grabs Yuuri by the waist and kisses him so he stops talking and being so lewd in a family store. Yuuri melts against his husband's lips and already savors his victory.

“Fine. We’re taking this one,” Victor says, slightly bitterly but without letting Yuuri go. “With the 1-hour delivery. You’d better be naked when it arrives.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Yuuuuuriiiii…”

“Go away.”

“Please.”

“No.”

Victor sighs and leans against the door of the bedroom, which has remained closed since Yuuri locked himself in.

“It’s been three hours,” Victor complains weakly.

“I don’t care.”

“It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Yes it does.”

“Please just let me in.”

“No.”

“It was just luck!”

“I was not.”

“It’s just a game!”

“Shogi is not just a game!”

“What is it then?”

“It's a tradition!”

“So what?”

“So I’m Japanese, I’ve been playing this game for 25 years, I just taught you how to play this morning and you beat me in ten minutes!”

“I didn’t even know what I was doing!”

“Don’t make it worse!”

“Come on, it’s really nothing.”

There is a silence and Yuuri comes to open the door. His brows are furrowed. “I want revenge,” he declares strongly.

“Great!” Victor smiles, relieved to finally see him come out of the bedroom. “Come on, I’ll make tea.”

 

 

Their cups of tea are still steaming hot when the door of the bedroom once again slams shut behind Yuuri, and Victor is left talking to him from the living room.

“I didn’t do it on purpose, come back!”

“NO!”

“Please! Just one more game! I promise I’ll lose this time!”

Yuuri opens the door wide. His cheeks are red and his hair tousled. He points an accusatory finger at Victor’s chest.

“I let you win the two first times, but this time we're playing for real.”

 

 

“I’m a disgrace to my country,” Yuuri sobs half an hour later.

“It was an accident, I swear I thought it was your gold general and not your king, you know I can’t read the signs on the pieces.”

“I can never go back to Japan,” Yuuri whines as he hides his face in his hands.

“Don’t be ridiculous," Victor purrs as he rubs Yuuri's back. "You’ve won international medals for Japan, they played your national anthem at the world championships thanks to you.”

“Figure skating is not part of the ancestral tradition of Japan!”

“So what? Everybody in Japan should be a shogi expert?”

“It's not that… I- I've never won a single game of shogi," Yuuri blurts. "It took me three years to learn the rules and I've never won against anybody. I suck at being Japanese.”

"No, you just suck at shogi."

"I don't care."

Victor sighs and runs his fingers through his bangs.

“When I play Tetris I can never go beyond level 4," he confesses blandly.

Yuuri looks up and blinks away the heavy tears that wet his lashes.

“I've never read Tolstoy,” Victor adds. “I tried to read Dostoyevsky but it turned out that Crime and Punishment is a serious and totally not erotic book. No one was being punished the way I thought they’d be, who would have thought?”

Yuuri chuckles. “You’re lying.”

"No really, it's about a boy with a watch-"

"Victor..."

Victor shrugs and hugs Yuuri. “I always order fancy cocktails because I don’t really like vodka alone," he admits quietly. "I've never converted anyone to communism. I don't even know who Rasputin is.”

Yuuri laughs and cries at the same time. “You're the worst Russian I've ever met.”

“What?” Victor gasps with a fake offended wince. “Do you think Yuri has read War and Peace? Georgi tried to tell me about Karl Marx once though,” he says with a thoughtful frown.

“The worst.”

“Do you still love me though?”

Yuuri wipes his cheeks with the back of his hand. He bites his lip, and smiles. “I do.”

“See? It doesn’t matter, I love you too.”

Yuuri leans forward to kiss his husband, but has a small pout when he pulls back.

“Ok but I just want to play shogi without losing all the time.”

“We can learn together I guess?”

“We’re playing until I win.”

“Oh no... Alright, just set up the board, I’ll stock up on food.”


	4. Chapter 4

The night is silent and the atmosphere in the bedroom is so heavy that Yuuri can almost see Victor slowly sink into the mattress to try and disappear. Yuuri tries to find the right words but Victor just stares at the ceiling as if he was praying for it to fall over him and bury him under the rubble.

“It's ok,” Yuuri whispers softly in the dark, “it can happen to anyone…”

On the other side of the bed Victor remains quiet, still engrossed in the idea of vanishing on the spot.

“Maybe you're a little bit stressed or tired,” Yuuri adds, ”it doesn't mean anything.”

Victor does not move an eyelash.

“Maybe it was me, I just wasn't enough-”

“Can you just-” Victor cuts tensely as he clenches his fists at his sides. “Just stop talking please.”

“Sorry.”

There is a silence so long that Yuuri starts thinking that his husband fell asleep.

“I don't know what happened,” Victor finally says blandly.

“It's just one time, it can be anything or nothing. You were just not ready yet.”

“I'm always ready.”

“It’s not a competition… No one is judging your performance.”

“You are.”

“Alright,” Yuuri says, rolling his eyes as he rises on his elbow to look at Victor, “ -3 GOE for tonight, but last night was a perfect score, and the night before definitely a world record.”

Victor pinches his lips. After a minute he speaks again. “I saw that it wasn’t working and I started to panic, and it killed it even more,” he says bitterly.

“Why would you panic? I'm your husband, if someone can understand that you have no power over this, it's me.”

“I’m sorry if you’re frustrated.”

“It's ok, don't worry about me.”

“Please stop saying that it's ok, it’s just making it worse.”

Yuuri lies back down, rests his head on Victor’s shoulder and places his hand over his chest. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Victor shrugs and looks away.

“This has nothing to do with the fact that you turned 30 last week, does it?”

Victor shudders to hear Yuuri say it out loud. Yuuri lets the tip of his finger run lightly under his collarbone and down to his stomach. “What's wrong?” he asks in a whisper.

“Everything.”

“So much?”

Victor clenches his teeth. “I'm getting bald. I'm putting on weight. I'm pretty sure I need glasses. Yesterday I hurt my back when I bent down to untie my skates, and now I'm impotent. There. Everything's wrong.”

Yuuri is glad that Victor is looking away from him, because he cannot help but smile at his overly dramatic husband. “Your hair is fine. You put on one pound after we went to the restaurant for your birthday. You’ve needed glasses since I met you, you just refused to admit it. Your back was hurting yesterday because you tried to land a quadruple axel before Yuri does and you fell on your butt. Also I’m still sore from what we did last night, your dick works perfectly fine.”

The bedroom is dark but Yuuri can guess the pout on Victor’s face.

“Yeah, you're getting older, but… Actually I love it,” he says as he caresses Victor’s chest and kisses his shoulder.

“I don’t."

“You’ve changed but it doesn't mean it's bad. Imagine if Yuri turned 30 and he was still wearing leopard print hoodies and ripped skinny jeans... It'd be ridiculous. You can't expect to be the same your whole life. I never expected you to be the same forever. I won’t be the same forever.”

Victor doesn’t say anything but he turns his head to face Yuuri again, and Yuuri takes the chance to kiss his cheek. “To be honest,” he adds quietly, “you’re getting so sexy I can't believe how lucky I am.”

“Praising me won’t change anything.”

“You’re seriously getting hotter every day. Remember when you didn’t shave for a few days three months ago? I still dream about it sometimes.”

“I just want my dick to work.”

“It works fine, it’s just taking a day off, which is also good for me I guess. Please stop sulking.”

Victor sighs deeply and his shoulders relax. “I’m sorry I ruined the mood.”

Yuuri pulls the blanket over himself and Victor and nestles closer against him to sleep. “Can’t be worse than the time Makka bit my butt while we were doing it in the living room.”

 

In the morning Yuuri feels strangely annoyed upon waking up. The bed is uncomfortable. Victor is holding him too tight. Something is poking him in the back.

“Yuuuuuriiii…”

“I get it Victor...”

“It's back!”

Yuuri chuckles at his enthusiasm. “I'm glad you're feeling better.”


	5. Chapter 5

Victor gets up first in the morning. He fills up the kettle and puts bread in the toaster. Yuuri usually joins him a couple of minutes later, when the bed gets cold and he cannot warm up against his husband.

This time, however, Yuuri does not appear. No trace of his pajamas or his bed hair, his sleepy eyes, and his mismatched socks in the kitchen. Victor goes back to the bedroom to wake up his sleeping beauty, but he has to dig under a pile of blankets to find him.

There, under two comforters and a pillow, Yuuri is shivering. His face is red and hot but his shoulders shake like a leaf. His T-shirt is soaked with sweat and his lips are chapped. He blinks and squints as if the light was too bright.

“My head… weighs a thousand tons,” he whispers weakly.

Victor brushes his forehead with his hand, as if he actually knew anything about how to know if someone has a fever. Yuuri coughs and closes his eyes again, leaning into Victor’s soft touch.

Victor disappears and comes back with a thermometer. Yuuri blinks, and shakes his head as he tries to hide under the covers again.

“It goes in your mouth.”

Yuuri sighs in relief and opens his mouth. After a minute Victor takes back the thermometer. 

“I’m calling the doctor.”

“You don’t need to-”

“It wasn’t a question.”

 

“I just have a cold,” Yuuri mumbles. “I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

“You have a bad flu,” the doctor says as he packs his bag and gives Victor a prescription. “No training for a week. Stay at home, sleep, and drink a lot, water, tea, soup.”

“For a week!?” Yuuri whines as he hides his face in his hands. “My coach is going to kill me...”

The doctor looks up at Victor, who sighs. “It’s me, I’m his coach, he’ll be fine.”

 

Victor forces Yuuri to drink a big glass of water with his prescribed medication, and tucks him in when he falls back on his pillow. Yuuri sleeps till the early afternoon. When he wakes up Victor is at his side before he can sit up in the bed.

“Take these… And drink this,” he mutter as he hands Yuuri a couple of pills and a steaming cup.

“What is it?”

“It’s just your regular tea but I put a big spoon of honey in it.”

Yuuri tries a gulp of tea. He swallows the painkillers with a wince, and slowly drinks again. By the time the cup is empty he is fully awake and has stopped shivering. Victor watches him stretch and smile, and relaxes a bit.

“Do you feel good enough for soup and rice for dinner?” 

“I think so.”

 

Victor brings a tray in bed and sits next to Yuuri. Between two swallows of soup, he feeds him a spoon of rice and eggs.

“You don’t have to do that,” Yuuri says as he holds his bowl of soup with two hands to enjoy the warmth. “I feel like an old man.”

“I just want to make sure that you eat, you’ve not eaten anything today.”

“Thank you.”

“I mean,” Victor says seriously, “this part was explicitly in the contract.”

“There’s a paragraph about sick leave in your coach contract? Sorry, I didn’t read, I just signed.”

“No, the other contract. I hope you read this one because it said we had to love and cherish each other in sickness and in health till death do us apart. That’s a pretty big deal.”

Yuuri coughs and lies back down as he pulls the blanket over his head. “I’ll love you even after this flu kills me.”


	6. Chapter 6

Yuuri leans against the wall and checks his phone absent-mindedly. They are in the hallway in front of the door of their apartment and Victor has been nervously fumbling in his pockets for five good minutes. After checking his jeans pockets and the inner pocket of his coat for the third time, he scratches the back of his head and turns to Yuuri.

“Do you… Erm… Do you have your keys?”

Yuuri shakes his head slowly. “I don’t, I told you to take yours because mine were in the car.”

“Let’s go get them in the car then.”

“Do you have the car keys?”

Victor’s shoulders drop and he lowers his head in defeat. He tries to move the handle just in case, but the door remains closed. He bites his lip. Yuuri sighs loudly. They have been out shopping all afternoon and couldn’t wait to kick off their shoes and slump on the couch, and now they are locked out and stand in the hallway without anywhere to go.

“Wait!” Victor says as his face lights up. “Yuri has a set of our keys!”

“Why does he have our keys?”

“I asked him to take care of Makkachin when we went to the four continents last month, I’ve not gotten them back yet.”

Yuuri is not convinced. “Call him to know if he’s at home, but I’m pretty sure he had something planned this weekend.”

Just a minute later Victor hangs up his phone and pouts. “He doesn’t answer and Otabek either, they must be out for the night.”

“I think they had a concert or I don’t know what, Otabek had tickets for something… They might not be back before 3 or 4 in the morning.”

Victor frowns as he desperately tries to find a solution and finally gives up. “Alright, I’m calling a locksmith,” he says as he dials the first number that shows up on his phone after googling it.

When he hangs up he looks even more bitter than before. “He said that for a door in this building at this hour it’d cost the price of my skates.”

“Which ones?”

“The new ones.”

Yuuri tenses. “Great.”

Victor shrugs. “It’s ok. It’s a pain but we can afford it.”

Yuuri’s eyes widen. “What? No! It’d be ridiculous to pay that much when we just need to wait for Yuri to come home and give us the keys.”

“Do you want to wait for him here?” Victor winces as he looks at the weak neon lights and the dubious stains on the carpet of the hallway. “We can’t even go wait in the car...”

“We could go to the movies and try to call him again in a couple of hours," Yuuri suggests. "We should get something to eat as well, I’m starving.”

Victor flips his bangs to the side and taps a long finger on his lips.

“Or…  We could get a hotel room, get room service, and enjoy a romantic night together.”

Yuuri pinches his lips. “A hotel room in the city we live in?”

“Why not?”

“Where?”

“I think I know a place…” Victor says with a side smile that Yuuri knows too well.

“Will it cost as much as the locksmith?”

“The locksmith doesn’t come with a bottle of champagne and a king size bed.”

“We don’t even have our things to sleep over.”

“They’ll have toothbrushes and shower gel at the hotel. I’m just afraid you’ll have to sleep without pajamas.”

Yuuri’s face changes. He does not really feel like waiting in the hallway or in a fast-food restaurant. His feet hurt, he is tired, and he knows how soft the sheets of the hotel bed will be on his skin. His brows relax and he looks up at Victor through his lashes. His voice is a purr in Victor’s ear. “Will you keep me warm?”

Victor takes him by the waist. “Will you behave until we arrive at the hotel?”

 

In the taxi to the hotel, Victor gets a text from Yuri.

_“I’m home, wtf do you want?”_

Victor looks at Yuuri, who is too busy trying to free his husband from his belt to look up. Victor types a quick answer and puts his phone back in his pocket.

_“Nothing, talk to you tomorrow.”_


	7. Chapter 7

 

The restaurant is select and Yuuri is amazed that Victor even managed to book a table. The menu is in French and the cutlery shines on the porcelain plates. The food is the finest. Everything is so fancy that Yuuri almost feels out of place. He is suddenly glad that Victor has bought him a new suit and forced him to wear it tonight because with his old one he would have looked like one of the waiters. Victor’s tuxedo was made for him and Yuuri is convinced that the woman at the table next to them will start drooling if she keeps gawking at him.

The candles flicker, the glasses are full, the evening couldn’t be more romantic. Or so Yuuri thinks.

They are waiting for the dessert when Victor lets go Yuuri’s hand that he was holding over the table, and reaches into his inside pocket. He pulls out a small velvet box and Yuuri’s jaw falls slack. The guests at the nearby tables stop talking to look at them. Yuuri holds his breath. His heart is beating far too fast. He can feel his face redden by the second.

Victor stands up from his chair and gets down on one knee, and Yuuri cannot believe what is happening. Victor flips his bangs to the side and his eyes sparkle.

“Yuuri,” he begins loud and clear, and Yuuri shivers despite the burn on his cheeks. “Ever since I saw you that first time in Sochi I’ve never spent an hour again without thinking about you. You asked me not to take my eyes off you, and to be honest, I don’t think I ever could, even if I wanted to. I’ve always thought that retiring from figure skating was the end for me but now I understand that with you at my side, it's only the beginning. Yuuri, with you I’m ready for a new chapter, with you I want to have a family, with you I’m not afraid to grow old anymore. You are my inspiration, my motivation, my love, my life. I cannot imagine spending a day without you, this is why today I want to ask you to spend the rest of your life with me.”

Yuuri bites his lip really hard but he tears up with an ugly wince. Victor opens the velvet box and reveals a ring so shiny that Yuuri has to squint to look at it.

Victor takes a deep breath.

“Yuuri Katsuki, will you marry me?”

Yuuri sniffles and nods eagerly. “Yes! Yes I will!”

Victor stands back up and takes Yuuri in a long and fervent kiss. Yuuri’s legs are shaking with emotion and he falls against Victor’s chest without restraint. The guests and the waiters clap and cheer. Someone opens a bottle of champagne. Victor steps back and takes Yuuri’s hand to slide the ring on his finger. It fits perfectly.

Yuuri has a small chuckle, wet with tears of joy. “I love you so much,” he whispers in Victor’s ear as they hug again.

Victor smiles. “I love you too.”

 

They enjoy their dessert quietly and leave the restaurant, still bubbling with excitement. The door swings shut behind them and Yuuri sighs loudly.

“I can’t believe you did it again.”

“I just love to hear you say yes.”

“And with a new ring again,” Yuuri says as he looks closer at the sparkling rock on his finger.

Victor grins. “Do you like it?”

“Of course I do!” Yuuri laughs. “But seriously, we’ve been married for three years.”

“They don’t know it.”

“What if someone had recognized you?”

Victor shrugs. “In St Petersburg maybe but abroad… Unlikely.”

“How do you always find different things to say?”

“I have the best inspiration.”

“You made me cry!”

Victor hugs him and pecks his lips. “I’m really sorry. I meant every word of it."

“Where did you put my wedding band?”

“It's in the nightstand drawer, I thought you wouldn't need it for tonight.”

“I was afraid I had lost it…”

“You have a new one now.”

Yuuri shakes his head. “It’s the fifth time that you ask me.”

“Yes,” Victor smiles smugly, “and it’s the fifth time you say yes and we get free dessert.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 10 days to go \o/

They are having a cozy evening at home and Yuuri is reading on the couch, when the lights turn off in the living room. The blinds are pulled down and Yuuri cannot see an inch in front of his face in the darkness. He hears someone stumble in the bedroom, a couple of books falling on the floor, the sound of door opening, and then a bark and a yelp.

“Ouch! Makka, move! No! Just move out of the way! Yuuri?”

“Victor?”

A pale halo glows in the dark and Victor’s face appears in the light of his phone. He tries the switch on the wall next to him but the darkness remains. He winces. “Erm… Looks like a power outage.”

“Is it working in the bedroom?”

“No. I’ll go downstairs check the electrical board, I’ll be right back. Be careful, Makka is scared of the dark.”

Yuuri turns on his own phone. He tries the switch of the lamp by the couch for good measure, without success. He gets up and fumbles in the kitchen drawers for a matchbox.

By the time Victor comes back, Yuuri has lit up all the candles they have, and a dim and warm light flickers in the apartment. Victor smiles.

“This is the most romantic fire hazard I’ve ever seen.”

“I didn’t really know what else to do,” Yuuri says. “We don’t have any flashlight and our phones will only last so long. Did you see what was going on?”

“No..." Victor sighs as he shakes his head. "Nothing looks wrong. How much battery do you have left?”

“10%. You?”

“12. I’m calling the electricity provider. Can you order pizzas, please?

“Pizzas?”

“Nothing in the kitchen works without electricity, and I’m kind of hungry.”

They do exactly that and slump on the couch.

“The pizzas will be here in 30 minutes.”

“The electricity will be back tomorrow around 6 am.”

Yuuri gasps. “6 am!? Not before?”

Victor has a vague shrug. “I know… We can’t watch TV and I don’t think my laptop will last a whole movie.”

“The heaters are electrical…” Yuuri whines. “We’re going to freeze in our sleep.”

“Do you mean that we cannot do anything but cuddle to stay warm tonight?”

Yuuri tenses. “Please wait until the delivery guy comes, I don’t want him to sue us for flashing.”

“We’re in our own living room.”

“We’re not in a cheap porno.”

 

They pet and hug Makkachin until she stops shaking. Victor is still dressed when he answers the door for the pizzas, and he doesn’t offer to pay in kind. They use the last minutes of the laptop's life to watch an episode of a series. Both of their phones run out of battery and, for a night, they are cut off from the world.

 

They bring a few candles in the bedroom, on the nightstands and on the chest of drawers. Victor undresses Yuuri before he has a chance to do it himself. Yuuri immediately crawls under a blanket but Victor holds him back.

“Wait. I want to see you.”

Yuuri looks up and the light of the candles reflects in Victor’s eyes. It’s gold in the silver strands of his hair, warm on his pale skin. The shadows underline every curve of his muscles and emphasize each of his movements. His silhouette dances on the wall behind him. Yuuri pulls him in a kiss.

There are very few words but it is like they don’t need them. It has hardly ever been so soft and sweet. Yuuri cannot get enough of Victor’s touch, and Victor is captivated by the way Yuuri’s body moves in the dim light. It's only the two of them, and nothing to distract them from each other. 

When they lie back down Yuuri closes his eyes to catch his breath, and barely notices that Victor blows out the candles. For a moment they stay in the dark without moving, letting their heartbeat slow down as the smell of the smoke vanishes in the air. Victor rests his head on Yuuri’s chest and Yuuri brushes his hair with the tip of his fingers. He whispers softly.

“You didn't pay the electricity bill, did you?”

Victor pinches his lips. “I might have paid a day or two after the deadline.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your support guys <3


	9. Chapter 9

When Yuuri walks into the living room, his teeth are clenched and his hands on his hips.

“Victor.”

“Hm?”

“I opened the left side of the closet in our bedroom.”

Victor pales. “Oh no.”

“One of your skates fell on me!” Yuuri shouts reproachfully. “Without guards!”

“I’m really sorry,” Victor says with a wince, “I hope you didn’t get hurt.”

“There were like 20 pairs in there!”

“I’ll move them somewhere else I promise!”

“No! You take them out and you throw them away!”

“What?” Victor gasps. “No!”

Yuuri’s eyes widen in disbelief. “Have you seen the mess?”

“I’m not throwing them away,” Victor insists as he shakes his head slowly.

“Yes you are! Look at all the space it’s taking up! We could fit all of our winter clothes in there!”

“I just-”

“Some boots were missing blades!”

“I know but-”

“Some are even too small for you now! How long have you been hoarding skates like that?”

“About since I-”

“You only use maybe four or five pairs at a time why on Earth do-”

Victor snaps and raises his voice to cover Yuuri’s. “I’VE KEPT EVERY PAIR I’VE WON A MEDAL WITH!”

Yuuri flinches in surprise and opens a gaping mouth. To busy being upset, he had not thought one second that Victor might have been keeping his skates for a reason. Knowing his happy-go-lucky husband, he had immediately thought that Victor was just putting all his old skates there, hoping for them to magically dispose of themselves one day. What he had taken for a pile of forgotten garbage is actually a precious collection of memories.

“Every pair?” Yuuri asks with a small voice.

“Yes.”

Yuuri looks down in shame and Victor walks past him to reach the closet. He opens the left door and a boot falls on his shoulder.

“Ok yeah, I need to find a better place.”

He takes a pair of skates from the upper shelf.

“This one was when I was 16, the European championships, look how small my feet were!” He puts them down and takes out two other pairs. “These were for the worlds the same year. These ones for my second Grand Prix. I liked the blades so much I mounted them on these boots for the nationals three weeks later." A skate slides out of the closet and he picks it up. "Oh no these… They were for the 2014 nationals, it was on my birthday. They're awful, I had to wear them because of a sponsorship agreement. Oh look!" he gasps as he plunges a hand to fumble at the back of the closet and pulls out another pair of skates. "My first pair with gold blades. I thought Yakov would lecture me but he didn’t say anything. It’s stupid but I was… proud? It was like I had earned them.”

Victor blushes and Yuuri’s heart melts. He tries to find the words to apologize but Victor keeps talking.

“I know it’s not reasonable to keep that many pairs. I wanted to go through them and only keep two or three but… It’s ridiculous but since I retired I tend to cling to things like that. They remind me that it happened, you know.”

Yuuri bites his lip not to tear up and tries to compose himself. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m a bit stressed with my parents coming over tomorrow and the cleaning and everything. I was not thinking straight.”

“It’s ok. One day I’ll let go but until then… I’ll try to find another place to store them so we can use this closet.”

Yuuri smiles and nods. “I think the smaller ones and the ones without blades can stay in there, at the bottom. We can put the other ones under the bed.”

Victor relaxes. He grabs Yuuri by the waist, pulls him close, and smirks. "There’s at least one thing my career brought me that I’ll keep forever.”

Yuuri cringes. “Don't say it."

“My sexy pork cutlet bowl who enthralls men.”


	10. Chapter 10

 

It’s the middle of the night but Yuuri is still awake, and he knows that Victor is not sleeping either. They are both lying on their back, looking at the ceiling without a word, and trying to relax despite their obvious discomfort. Victor turns on his side, then on his stomach, and rolls back on his back after a minute. He sighs loudly. 

“What's on your mind ?” Yuuri asks quietly.

There is a silence before Victor answers. “Every single muscle of my back is a knot.”

Yuuri rises on his elbow. “Me too, it’s awful.”

“I’ve never slept so badly.”

“I feel like I’m lying on the sidewalk.”

“I’ve had falls on the ice that were less painful than this mattress.”

Yuuri agrees silently, before speaking again. “Don’t take it wrong but... Even the sex is bad on this thing,” he mutters.

“Oh thank God!” Victor gasps. “I thought I was the only one who thought that yesterday. I couldn’t get into it because I kept thinking of how much my shoulders hurt and how hard the bed was.”

“I’ve not thought about anything but my backache since we brought it home.”

There is a long pause and Victor says out loud what they have both been thinking for days.

“We need to return it.”

Yuuri sits up and turns on the bedside lamp. “But how can we know which one to take next time? For all I know we risk to choose one that’s even worse than this one.”

Victor looks up. “I kind of want to get back our old one to be honest…” 

Yuuri nods eagerly. “I don’t even remember why we changed it in the first place.”

“We read an article at the doctor’s that said that we should change our bedding every 5 years and the mattress was 6 years old.”

“That magazine was from 1979.”

They pause. They look at each other as they realize that they might have been a bit too enthusiastic with their latest purchase. 

“I think I was excited to buy a new one,” Victor admits. “You know, going furniture shopping with you, choosing one that we both like and all...”

“Yeah me too, I thought it could be nice but I’ve not gotten a wink of sleep since we have it.”

“Do you think you can sleep on it just one more night?”

Yuuri shakes his head. “I’d rather sleep on the couch, but we can’t both fit on it.”

“I mean… We still have the other one…”

Yuuri blinks. “What? Where?”

“The collect for bulky waste is only once a month. It’s in the basement for now.”

They push the coffee table aside and roll the rug. They drag the old mattress out of the basement, up the stairs, in the elevator, and let it fall flat in the middle of the living room. They throw their pillows and bedsheets over it and immediately lie down to catch their breath after such an effort. They wrap up in the blankets and, before they realize it, they fall asleep in each other’s arms.

 

They only wake up late in the morning, when the sunlight bathes the living room and Makkachin climbs over their feet to request cuddles. Yuuri opens his eyes and smiles in contentment. Everything is soft and comfortable. The bed is warm, the room is quiet, and their legs are tangled under the blanket. Victor stretches and smiles back. He whispers.

“I’m calling the store after breakfast to tell them to come and take back the new mattress.”

Yuuri nestles closer against Victor. “I love you so much.”


	11. Chapter 11

Yuuri goes through the mail quietly. He puts aside the junk mail and opens a letter.

“We got the papers for the taxes… You did it last year so I can do it this time if you want, I just need your documents.”

Victor looks up across the living room. “Well it’s pretty easy on my side,” he says with a shrug. “I’m a figure skating coach and my only student pays in kind. That’s not much money to declare.”

Yuuri tenses. Victor had never been a regular coach, and even though he had mentioned at the very beginning that he would send Yuuri an invoice for his fees, he had never talked about it again afterward, and Yuuri had done a very good job at not bringing up the subject.

The truth is that Yuuri feels dizzy just thinking about how much he owes Victor after three years of coaching, and he is extremely embarrassed to admit that he probably could not afford to pay him if he one day asked for his money.

“Do you…” Yuuri stumbles. “I didn’t know you were still waiting for… for me to pay you but… Of course I mean… I have to pay you for your work…”

Victor smiles and walks up to him to hug him gently. “Yuuuuri, I’m kidding. Don’t worry about it. I’d not have coached you for free if I couldn’t afford it.”

“You can tell me how much I owe you and I… I’ll take a loan to pay you as soon as possible,” Yuuri stutters.

Victor rolls his eyes. “We are married, it wouldn’t make any sense for you to take a loan.”

Yuuri hides his face in Victor’s chest. “I’m so sorry, I should have told you from the beginning that I couldn’t afford you but I… I didn’t want you to leave me.”

“It’s ok. Don’t take it wrong but considering your career, I knew you that weren’t exactly making billions. I wasn't coming to take your money.”

“But you can’t live without earning anything forever…”

Victor tilts his head to the side. “Let’s say I have a bit of money saved up. I might take a couple of students next year as well.”

"I'm sorry you had to use your savings," Yuuri pouts sadly. “I should start thinking about what I’m going to do after I retire so you don't have to keep supporting me."

Victor taps a long finger on his lips, disappears for a few minutes, and comes back staggering under the weight of a cardboard box overflowing with papers. He drops it on the table and pulls out a binder.

“This one is 2016. You should find everything you need for the taxes, it might not completely be sorted but it’s more or less in chronological order.”

Yuuri opens the binder and his eyes immediately fall at the bottom of the first page. A very large number catches his eye. He blinks.

“What is this?”

Victor looks at the document. “Oh sorry, that’s 2013, it must have slipped in.”

“This is what you made in one year?” Yuuri asks with wide eyes.

Victor squints at the page again. “Erm yeah, after taxes.”

Yuuri feels strangely weak. “After taxes?” he asks with a small voice.

“Yes.”

Yuuri rubs his eyes, double checks the number, triple checks the currency, and shakes his head. “How… How did you…”

“Let’s say my sponsors were very generous and I made a few good investments.”

Yuuri suddenly looks really worried. “Are you dealing drugs?”

“What?”

"You're not involved in... illegal activities, are you?”

"Yuuri really?"

Yuuri remains silent for a few seconds. "You can tell me. I won't denounce you, you know,” he finally says in a breath.

Victor’s eyebrows rise in genuine surprise. “Really? You wouldn't denounce me?”

“I mean…” Yuuri says uneasily. “It'd depend on what exactly you'd be doing of course, but… We're married for better and for worse, and I don't really want to talk to you through a glass partition during visiting hours so… I think we’ll have to be either both free or both in jail.”

“Oh Yuuri…” Victor says as he hugs his husband. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Please tell me we’re not going to jail.”

Victor smiles. “No, we’re not. Orange isn’t really my color.”

Yuuri doesn’t look convinced. “But… You’d need to win the Olympics dozens of times to make this kind of money…”

“Every time I won my sponsors had to bid more to keep their logo on my jacket," Victor says seriously. "They paid for everything, my coach and my training gear, but also my apartment, travel expenses, food. The only things I was paying myself were for Makkachin. Plus they paid me to appear at events and smile, to shake hands, to give interviews. I also did a few ads and shows that were far overpaid. You can go through the papers if you want to.”

Yuuri relaxes but he still squints suspiciously. “How can I be sure you’re not secretly a drug lord?”

Victor bites his lip to repress a laugh. “Honey, I love you but… If it were drug money, do you really think I’d declare it and pay taxes on it?”

Yuuri blushes. “You don’t need me to pay you for your coaching, do you?”

“No, I don’t. I don’t even need you to do the taxes actually, I just give all the papers to an accountant every year.”


	12. Chapter 12

When Victor wakes up the night is still dark. It takes him a few seconds to understand why he is awake. On the other side of the bed, Yuuri whimpers softly. Victor pushes himself up on one elbow. Yuuri’s shoulders shake, but his eyes are closed. A tear glimmers on his lashes and rolls down his cheek. 

Unsure of what to do, Victor tries to gently squeeze Yuuri's arm. Yuuri doesn't react, and keeps clutching the blanket to himself and sobbing in his sleep.

"Yuuri…" Victor whispers.

Yuuri does not wake up or relax. Victor hesitates. He brushes Yuuri's hair gently, and speaks a little louder. "Yuuri."

For a second it looks like Yuuri has heard him but his eyes are still closed. Victor cradles him against his chest and caresses his cheek. "Yuuri wake up, you're having a nightmare."

Yuuri blinks and gasps in the dark. Victor turns on the bedside lamp. "It's ok. It's just me. You're ok."

Yuuri catches his breath and looks around warily. He looks up at Victor as to make sure that it’s true, that it’s just him. Victor’s eyes are worried, but he is calm and waiting for him to wake up completely. Yuuri’s heartbeat soon slows down as he remembers that he is in his bedroom, under his blanket, and he is safe with his husband. After a minute he relaxes, allows Victor to hug him, and lets himself melt against his chest. Victor gives him the time he needs, rubbing his back gently and pulling the blanket over him so he doesn't get cold. Yuuri wipes his wet cheeks with the blanket.

"I'm sorry," he mutters after a while.

"Sorry for what?"

"I woke you up."

"I don't care, I was just worried about you."

Yuuri looks away.

"Do you want to talk about?" Victor asks softly.

"I don't know."

Victor keeps holding him tight, and there is something soothing in the warmth of his skin and the strength of his arms as he hugs Yuuri without a word.

"Sometimes I dream about what happened in Sochi and then everything becomes horrible,” Yuuri whispers. “My family hates me, they don’t want me to come back to Japan because they’re ashamed of me. My dog is dead because of me. You… You don’t look at me. You don't even know I exist at all… I love you but you don’t know I exist, I'm just completely alone,” Yuuri says as he gasps to swallow back a sob.

“Hey…” Victor says as he takes a tissue and gives it to Yuuri. “Your family would never have done that, they love you no matter your skating scores. Even when I showed up without warning, they treated me like I was a part of the family already just because they knew you liked me. They just want you to be happy.”

“I know… I just feel guilty for everything that happened. I keep thinking that if I had been there to take care of Vicchan he would be here with me.”

“It was an accident. You cannot tell what would have happened if you had been at home, there is no way to know. I'm sure he was very happy with your family, Makkachin loves to go and see them.”

A new gush of tears floods Yuuri’s eyes at Victor’s kind words.

“Why are you even with me?” he stutters with trembling lips. “You could have married anyone! Anyone! Someone rich and famous like you! Someone handsome! Someone successful!”

Victor has a small sigh. “First of all, you’re handsome and successful. I won’t let you say otherwise because it’s not true and also it’d mean that I have a bad taste in men and I’m a bad coach. And then if one of us is lucky to have the other, trust me, it’s me.”

“What?” Yuuri croaks between two sobs.

“Last week I woke you up because I was snoring too loud. You ask me about once a day to pick up my socks from the floor. You had to take me to the dentist because I forgot I had an appointment 4 times in a row. Yesterday I burned our breakfast. Once I went to buy groceries for the week and I only bought dog food.”

Yuuri as a small chuckle. “That’s true. We still have enough dog food for at least four months by the way.”

“Off the ice I’m nothing,” Victor says quietly. “You, you have everything to give. You love me, you take care of me, you make me happy, you understand me. You buy actual groceries.”

“Anybody could do that.”

“No. Anybody could have loved a glossy picture of me in a magazine, you’re the only one who loves me even if I forget to pay the electricity bill or I buy Makkachin a leash that’s worth a month of rent.”

“You what?”

Victor blushes sheepishly. “You love me, right?”

Yuuri looks at him and tries to be mad for a second but gives up. "I do," he says with a smile. 

"I love you too," Victor whispers as he turns off the light and pulls the blanket over both of them.

“You woke me up because you snored and I woke you up because I had a nightmare," Yuuri says, "the next one to wake up the other does the laundry.”

“Remember when I washed your skating costume and you had to give it to Yuri?”

Yuuri yawns. “Why am I even married to you…”


	13. Chapter 13

Victor comes home later than usual that night. He has sent Yuuri a text to tell him not to wait for him for dinner, but he knows that Yuuri will probably not eat without him anyway. When he opens the door to their apartment, the light is dim and the living room smells of delicious food. Before he can take off his shoes, a smooth purr rises from the shadows.

“Hi handsome…”

Victor looks around. He cannot repress a smile when he sees Yuuri, sprawled on the couch, half-naked. Yuuri still has his shirt on - or maybe it is one of Victor’s shirts, but he has taken off his pants, and the lacy panties he is wearing leave very little doubt to what his intentions are. His hair is slicked back and his glasses have been put away.

Victor would be immediately turned on, if it weren’t for the half-full glass of wine that is dangerously tilted in Yuuri’s limp hand and threatens to fall on the couch any seconds. Yuuri’s cheeks are flushed and Victor guesses it is just as much from the alcohol as it is from desire. Yuuri blinks with heavy lashes and wiggles suggestively.

The dinner that has gotten cold on the table, the candles that have melted, and the wine bottle on the coffee table is empty. Everything looks like Yuuri had planned a romantic evening but has felt like time was passing too slowly while he was waiting for his husband to arrive.

“I made dinner and I waited for you…” Yuuri mutters as he tries to stand up but clearly struggles to find his balance.

Victor bites his lip, comes up to him, and hugs him to prevent him from falling. He takes the wine glass out of his hand and puts it out of reach. He smiles.

“You didn’t wait for me to drink, did you?”

Yuuri pouts and his cheeks get redder if possible. “You were taking really long.”

“Did you drink the whole bottle by yourself?”

“The first bottle was already half empty…”

Victor blinks. “This is not the first bottle?”

Yuuri shrugs and mumbles something unintelligible. Victor chuckles and helps Yuuri sit down on the couch. Yuuri doesn’t waste a minute before he pushes Victor down, crawls over him, and grinds on him.

“Oh wow,” Victor whispers, taken aback by Yuuri’s sudden fervor. For a second he considers letting Yuuri do him on the couch, letting him pin him down between his thick thighs, letting him be Eros all over again. Yuuri is already at work, opening Victor’s shirt and kissing love bites on his collarbones. He comes up to Victor’s lips, and Victor is harshly brought back to reality. Yuuri smells like red wine and his kiss is messy.

Victor’s heart tightens. It has been a while since he has last seen Yuuri so drunk. After his exploit in Sochi Yuuri had been careful not to drink too much, especially in public, but it seemed that knowing that he was at home and that Victor was coming back soon, he had indulged himself for one night.

Softly, carefully, Victor pushes Yuuri back.

Yuuri frowns in an offended wince. He whines. “Please… I need you...”

Victor brushes his cheek and kisses him on the forehead. “I love you but you’re a little bit too drunk for that tonight.”

“I’m not! Please!”

“Tomorrow maybe.”

Yuuri lets himself fall against Victor's chest. “Please Victor, please... be my coach.”

“Oh Yuuri…" Victor breathes. After three years Yuuri's glimmering eyes still make Victor want to give him the world and more if he asked for it. "You’re really too drunk for anything.”

Victor picks Yuuri up princess style and Yuuri doesn’t complain. He is already falling asleep when Victor finishes to undress him and tucks him into bed.

 

When Yuuri wakes up the next morning he is particularly confused.

“At what time did you come home last night?” he asks Victor on his pillow.

“You don’t remember?”

“Remember what?”

Victor sighs but still smiles. “Get up and grab your skates, we have to be at the rink in 30 minutes.”

“What? Ugh..." Yuuri moans as he rubs his temples. "I don’t really feel like it today…”

“Hey," Victor notes severely, "you asked for it. Twice."


	14. Chapter 14

Yuuri wakes up with a smile on the morning of the 29th of November. He rolls under the blanket to get a birthday kiss from his husband, but the bed is empty, and the sheets are cold. He frowns. He hears noises in the kitchen and he imagines Victor preparing a nice breakfast, and even bringing it in bed. He stays a couple more minutes in his pillows to see if his fantasy is true.

Victor does come back into the bedroom but it is not to bring Yuuri breakfast. "What are you doing still in bed?” he asks abruptly. “We're already late for the rink, hurry up!"

Victor leaves and Yuuri is left alone, slightly stunned. He reluctantly drags himself out of the bed and gets ready. Victor does not say anything about his birthday on the way to the rink. He keeps talking about insignificant things, about the gray weather and Makkachin’s lost rope toy. Yuuri nods without a word.

Yuuri crosses his fingers that someone at the rink will know that it is his birthday, but when he arrives nobody pays attention to him. A few skaters wave 'hello' at Victor. Yuri says 'hi' but goes back to training.

Yuuri knows he shouldn’t be so upset. He is not a kid anymore, and Victor and him never really party for each other’s birthdays anyway. Somehow the fact that he was not expecting more than a birthday kiss, and doesn’t even get that, makes him extremely frustrated.

At lunch the news on TV mention the date of the day and Yuuri watches his husband in the hope of a sudden realization. Victor keeps eating his sandwich. "That's crazy, it's almost December already,” he casually says between two bites, and Yuuri almost wants to cry.

During the afternoon Victor mumbles something about having to go buy dog food, and he leaves Yuuri alone at the gym. Yuuri checks his phone but eventually has to accept that his family didn’t think about his birthday either. He tries to convince himself that they must be busy at the Onsens, but his throat is tight when he puts his phone back in his pocket.

When they go home at the end of the day Yuuri has a last hope that Victor will take him to the restaurant, but they go straight to their apartment, and in the elevator Victor starts saying that he will take Makkachin out for a walk and that Yuuri can heat up leftovers for dinner in the meantime. They arrive in front of their door and Yuuri stops several feet behind Victor in the hallway. Victor looks up and raises an eyebrow.

Yuuri gets red, and he wants to be an adult and shrug it off but he can't. He bites his lip very hard but a tear still rolls down his cheek.  
"You forgot my birthday," he sobs. "I know you're forgetful but I thought you wouldn't forget that. You don't even forget Makkachin's birthday."

Victor’s face melts in a soft smile. He hugs Yuuri. “I’m really sorry, I saw that you were upset but I didn’t want to ruin everything.”

“Ruin what?”

Victor lets Yuuri go just the time to turn the key and open the door.

Yuuri stumbles backward at the sudden noise. A little group is gathered in the living room and shouts a loud ‘Happy Birthday Yuuri!’. There's Yuri, Otabek, Mila, Yakov, Lilia, and then Yuuri cries harder because there's his mother, his father, and Mari, waiting for him.

“Yuuri!” Hiroko coos as she takes her son into her arms, “Victor came to pick us up at the airport this afternoon.”

Yuuri wipes his tears on her shoulder. “Mom I- I thought he had forgotten…”

“Forgotten? He called us three months ago to ask us to come!”

“He’s been a pain all week,” Yuri groans, “he made us repeat four times at what time we should be here and swear not to tell you anything before the d-day.”

“He was a bit tense,” Mila agrees, “he asked me to check the time difference to make sure your parents would be on time.”

“He forced me to wear a shirt,” Yuri adds bitterly as he hooks a finger in the neck of his button-up shirt.

“He booked hotel rooms for us for the week so we can stay and support you at the Grand Prix,” Toshiya says happily, and Yuuri is shaking with emotion. He turns to Victor and looks down in shame.

“I’m sorry I assumed you had forgotten and I was mad at you.”

“It’s ok, I'm sorry I made you sad today, you looked so upset at lunch I almost gave up, I hate to see you like that."

“This was the worst birthday but now it's the best," Yuuri mutters as he rises on his toes to kiss his husband. "Thank you."

They enjoy pizzas and drinks, and Yuuri is so excited to see his family that he has to stop and catch his breath between sentences when he talks to them. When it’s time for dessert Mila walks out of the kitchen with an embarrassed wince. “Victor, I found the candles, but where is the cake?”

Victor chuckles but blushes hard when he looks at Yuuri with an apologetic pout. “It’s- erm- still at the bakery. I forgot to pick it up.”

Yuuri sighs but smiles. "I love you."


	15. Chapter 15

“Yuuri?”

“Hm?”

“I bought muffins yesterday...”

“You did?”

“Chocolate muffins.”

Yuuri blushes. “Ah?” he asks innocently.

“A box of six.”

Yuuri straightens, without looking up. “That’s a lot.”

“Have you seen them?”

“No.”

“Yuuri.”

Yuuri's throat tightens and his voice becomes really tiny. “You must have left them in the car.”

“Yuuuuuri.”

Yuuri shakes his head vigorously and pinches his lips.

Victor comes behind him, sneaks his arms around his waist, and whispers in his ear. “Yuuuuuuuuuri.”

“ALRIGHT IT WAS ME!” Yuuri cries as he turns around and finally faces Victor. “I ate them all! I’m sorry!”

Victor chuckles at his overreaction. “How did you eat them all? We did eat lunch and dinner yesterday…”

“I know! I know! I just wanted to eat one and then I ate a second one and then they were gone!” Yuuri says, moving his hands in front of him as to show the sudden disappearance of the muffins.

“Gone?”

“YES! I even ate the crumbs...” Yuuri whines pitifully.

Victor shrugs. “It’s fine, I’ll get some more tomorrow.”

Yuuri tenses. “NO!”

“What?”

“If you buy more I’ll just eat more!”

“So?”

“I don’t want to get fat.”

“You’re far from being fat.”

Yuuri pulls on a fold of skin of his stomach. “You, you retired 5 years ago and you’ve not put on one gram. Every year I have to get back to my competition weight after I became a whale during the summer…”

“You never put on more than a few pounds.”

“I don’t like how it looks.”

“It doesn’t really show that much… I only see it because I’m an expert at looking at you naked.”

Yuuri blushes and looks away.

“You know,” Victor resumes softly, “in the video where you danced my program, you had a bit of weight, more than you do now.”

Yuuri clenches his teeth.“Don’t rub it in, Minako already called me fat as soon as I came back home. I can’t believe so many people saw me that fat on Youtube.”

“No I mean, you were a bit chubby but it didn’t stop me from taking the next plane to come to you.”

“And then the first thing you said was that I had to lose weight…” Yuuri recalls bitterly.

“I thought it’d be easier to land quads if you were a bit fitter. If it had just been about me I wouldn’t have said anything but at that time I was not there to enjoy your love handles, I was there to be your coach.”

“Hmpf,” Yuuri grunts, unconvinced.

“Yuuri, of course if you were at an unhealthy weight I’d stop you, put putting on a few pounds out of season is normal, good even.”

Yuuri still doesn’t look up.

“It's all about you. If you feel better when you’re thinner then we can watch your diet,” Victor adds, “but if it’s just for me, you don’t have to change anything.”

“I don’t know…” Yuuri says with a pout. “I like when you look at me and I know you won’t look at me the same if I’m chubby.”

Victor tilts his head to the side and nods. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“See!” Yuuri gasps as he lets his arms flap at his sides. “I’m sorry I let myself go, I’ll stick to veggies now.”

Victor pinches his lips and has a fake sigh. “I really don’t know what I’ll do if your butt gets any rounder, I won’t be able to look away.”

“What?”

“Just thinking that your thighs could be thicker it’s… indecent.”

Yuuri glances up shyly. “You think so?”

Victor lets a hand roam between Yuuri’s thighs, and Yuuri presses his legs together in surprise. Victor hums appreciatively. He cups Yuuri’s ass and gives it a firm squeeze.

Yuuri’s face gets dark crimson. “Do you really like it?” 

Victor bends and lifts Yuuri up against his chest, holding his legs on each side and letting Yuuri hook his feet together behind his back. He looks at Yuuri through his silver lashes, and they kiss hungrily.

Victor turns to carry Yuuri to the bedroom. “I’m buying more muffins tomorrow.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [decorative-trashbag](http://decorative-trashbag.tumblr.com/) made art for this fic, it's absolutely adorable, I love it! I feel very honored. You can see it [here](https://dontstopyurinow.tumblr.com/post/182080209988/decorative-trashbag-dontstopyurinow-yuuri) !


	16. Chapter 16

It's the end of the afternoon and Yuuri is starting to feel the exhaustion of hours of training. He and Victor are still on the ice and Yuuri does a last run through. Victor comments on his jump and the little step sequence that comes right after, but Yuuri is still confused, so Victor skates back to show him what he expects. Yuuri watches him pick up speed, it’s smooth and effortless, and he jumps as if his body weighed nothing. But when he lands, Yuuri gasps. Victor’s blade catches a dent in the ice and his ankle bends the wrong way, before he falls backward and glides a few feet farther. Yuuri’s stomach twists. Even Yuri flinches from the other side of the rink.

Victor slowly sits up on the ice and Yuuri can see that his teeth are clenched and his eyebrows furrowed. He quickly skates up to him and helps him up. Victor reaches the barrier gliding on one skate.

Yuuri carefully unties the laces of Victor's boot to open it as wide as possible. Victor winces and can't repress a painful whine when he slowly pulls his foot out. Yuuri looks up.

“I think you need to see a doctor,” he says softly.

Victor shakes his head. “I'm fine.”

Yuuri rolls his eyes. “We’ve been married for three years, did you really think you’d convince me with that?”

Victor looks away and hides behind his bangs. “I'll just wrap it and ice it and I'll be good tomorrow.”

Yuuri looks back down at Victor’s ankle. His pale skin is already turning blue and swelling at the joint. Yuuri carefully feels around Victor’s calf with the tip of his finger and Victor twitches.

 

They wait two a half hours in the ER and a dark bruise blossoms on Victor's ankle. He refuses to sit in a wheelchair and hops down the hallway to get an X-ray. Yuuri sighs as he holds him up. 

In the exam room Victor keeps his head down and Yuuri brushes his arm gently. The doctor checks his clipboard and looks up.

“ _The_ Victor Nikiforov?” he asks as he raises an eyebrow.

To Yuuri’s surprise, Victor doesn't take the occasion to flip his bangs to the side and flash a press conference grin. Instead he has a polite smile and a short nod.

“Do I need to ask how you did this?”

Victor shakes his head. “I fell after a jump while training and my ankle twisted that way,” he says as he shows the inside of his foot.

“It's not the first time, is it?”

“It's the fourth time on this side. Last time was 4 years ago.”

The doctor shakes his head in disapproval. “Maybe you should start trying to take it easy, Mr. Nikiforov. Not just for your ankle, but for your knees and your hips as well. You're not 16 anymore.”

Victor doesn't say anything. In fact, he already wasn't in a very good mood and now he looks like he's just been hit with a saucepan. Yuuri glares at the doctor, who couldn't care less as he finishes writing his prescription.

“Rest. No walking, no running, and no skating. Four weeks minimum. Rest or it'll never heal properly and you'll hurt yourself again as soon as you start training again.”

Victor winces but doesn't argue. He earns an ankle brace and a pair of crutches.

 

When they arrive home Victor slumps on the couch and hides his head in the cushions. Yuuri gives him a bit of time, lets him be alone while he takes care of Makkachin and unloads the dishwasher. When he's done he sits next to Victor and brushes his hair back softly.

“Are you alright? I’ll go to the pharmacy to get your painkillers.”

“He said I was old,” Victor mumbles weakly.

“Anybody could have hurt themselves with that jump.”

"He said I should get a hip replacement."

"No, he didn't say that."

“But when I twisted my ankle before I'd just wrap it and wait a couple of days and I'd be good to go. This time I almost thought it was broken. I can't even put my foot down," he whines sadly.

“You never twisted your ankle that bad. I remember the last time you did, it was barely noticeable in the video.”

Victor blinks. “There’s a video of that?”

Yuuri blushes. “It was -erm- a fancam and I- I don’t know, it was in my youtube suggestions.”

Victor grins, and Yuuri is relieved to finally see a true smile. With the injury and the doctor's comments, he was almost sure to see Victor mope around for at least a week. "Anyway," he resumes lightly, "I’m glad that I can take care of you this time.”

“Take care of me?”

Yuuri nods seriously. “It’s going to be a tough few weeks. You’ll have to stay on the couch while I bring you food, drinks, pillows to support your leg, blankets to keep you warm. I’ll help you shower to make sure you don’t slip in the bathroom, I’ll have to carry you to bed at night… Really terrible things.”

Victor sits up. He takes Yuuri's hand. “I wish you'd been here all the times I got injured before."

Yuuri leans over to kiss him. "I’ll cuddle you enough to make up for all the other times."


	17. Chapter 17

"Victor wait- Maybe you shouldn't-"

"It's ok, it's just my third drink.”

"It's the fifth one, and the fourth one was a double."

Victor rolls his eyes and shrugs. "Yuuriiiiiiiiii… Come on, I’ll be fine.”

“Please take a little break. Do you want to eat something?”

Victor pretends to consider the offer. He taps a long finger on his lips. “I’ll have… a raspberry vodka with one of these little pink paper umbrellas.”

“You’ll regret it tomorrow,” Yuuri sighs as he helplessly watches his husband order a new round of colorful shots.

The bar is busy and noisy and Yuuri is not sure it was a good idea to accept to go out that night. Chris was in town for the Rostelecom Cup and had touched a nerve by telling Victor he was becoming old and boring, staying at home with his husband and going to bed early. Not an hour later Victor and Yuuri had joined him in one of the most select clubs in St Petersburg, Victor wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night and ordering drinks for a whole bunch of people Yuuri had never seen.

Now Yuuri has lost count of Victor’s drinks. There are empty bottles on the floor and guests dancing on the tables. Victor has taken off his shirt and Yuuri has kept quiet despite the ogling crowd, but when Victor starts to undo his belt, he cannot help but step in.

“No, no, no, you’re not getting naked in public again,” he says as he grabs Victor’s hands and pulls them away from his belt buckle.

Victor whines. “But pants are annoying…”

“You can get naked when we go home, not before.”

Victor frowns as if he was making an intense effort to focus. “Then… We should go home,” he eventually mutters.

Yuuri smiles with relief and calls a taxi, before helping Victor put his shirt back on. It takes a bit of negotiation to actually drag him away from the table, and then a bit of time for him to drunkenly stagger through the bar and get into the car, but Yuuri is happy that he has finally managed to take his husband away from the guests. 

In the taxi Victor looks at him as if he was seeing him for the first time, and has a blissful, heart-shaped smile. “You're so cute…” he purrs slowly.

“And you’re really drunk,” Yuuri chuckles.

“When I saw you the first time... You were like an angel.”

Yuuri’s heart tightens and he feels warm in the chest. “I didn’t know alcohol made you so mushy…”

“...Like one of those chubby baby angels who are naked on the old paintings.”

Yuuri loses his smiles and winces in embarrassment. “Ugh Victor…” 

“I was so in love with you but you didn't remember anything from our dance together…” Victor resumes without paying attention to Yuuri’s reaction. He struggles to string the words together but looks like he has something very important to say anyway. “Aaah I was so upset…” he recalls with emotion. “Chris said I couldn't be in love with someone I met just one time but yes I can, I’m an adult.”

Yuuri’s face changes. He blinks at Victor, who keeps his lovestruck smile. “From our dance together?” Yuuri asks in confusion.

“You were so beautiful when we danced, we were meant for each other, obviously.”

Yuuri can feel his heartbeat quicken. “In Sochi?”

“I didn’t even give you my number I was so sad…”

Yuuri’s eyes widen. “You loved me before you came to Hasetsu?”

“Chris said I should move on but I kept thinking about you…”

“You’ve been in love with me since Sochi?”

“Yakov said I was an idiot, he wouldn’t let me be in love in peace, he was so mean.”

Yuuri shakes his head in disbelief. “But… But why didn’t you tell me?”

Victor pouts and Yuuri almost thinks he is going to cry big drunk tears. “I thought you didn’t like me!" he croaks pitifully. "You didn’t want to take a picture with me and then you never talked to me again after we danced and you didn’t come to the other competitions of the season…”

Yuuri needs a moment to take in the news. Victor lets himself fall against him and Yuuri rubs his back as he tries to figure out how Victor Nikiforov can possibly have been pining for him for months before they started to know each other, and how he has kept that secret for three years of marriage.

Victor seems oblivious to his silent crisis. “Yuuri…" he mutters dizzily. "I’m so happy now that I’m with you…”

Yuuri looks at him. He has hardly ever felt so much love than right now. “I’m happy too," he softly whispers back as he tightens his embrace.

Victor remains silent for a few seconds while Yuuri hugs him.

“You really danced like an angel…” Victor suddenly says, so seriously that Yuuri is surprised. “You should teach me.”

“Teach you?”

“Yes. You should… be my coach Yuuri.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your support through this little challenge! I really got amazing feedback here and on Tumblr, I wouldn't have been able to complete it without you! <3
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading these drabbles as much as I enjoyed writing them.
> 
> Now it's only hours before we get the news about the movie so... See you next level! <3
> 
> -The Sprout


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